Project Updates

Over 120,000 children are estimated to be abandoned or orphaned each year in Russia. Yet even those living with their birth parents do not always receive the parental care that every child deserves–children such as Masha, Yulia, and Lena.*

To remain competitive in the global economy, there is an increasing need for globally-aware young learners who are able to understand their peers in other countries and think critically outside of traditional subject areas. Creative, motivated educators are taking the lead in preparing these students, often despite large class sizes and limited resources. Some of these teachers use online tools to enable youth from the U.S. and nations as far away as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to see literally into each other’s classrooms.

The Bibliomist  project, officially launched on Wednesday, September 30, will dramatically increase free public access to the internet and aims to foster the development of a modern library system in Ukraine.

Youth-led, homegrown projects are making changes throughout Lebanon. They are increasing the transparency of local government hospitals and municipalities, tackling corruption at the Lebanese University, and reducing bribery in public institutions. Although many of these successes were made possible with international assistance, youth campaign ideas have thus far outpaced the ability to secure funding.

“We come from many places, but we share a common future,” President Barack Obama said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly this September. This statement could not be more fitting for International Education Week (November 16-20), which celebrates the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.

Baktygoul Koubanytchbekova was amazed by the issues her fellow students raised in classes during her first few weeks at Columbia Law School. “Back in Kyrgyzstan we are very limited to the statutes and regulations,” she said. “[In the US] it’s more about critical thinking and applying the norms of international law.” She adapted quickly, earning a 3.57 GPA her first semester, but wanted to do more.

Citizen journalists and even professionals in Jordan are often ill-equipped to serve as both advocates and reporters of the news. Furthermore, though there are a number of well-regarded bloggers in Jordan and throughout the Arab world, they are not all considered to be reputable sources of information. In an effort to help this new population of Jordanian journalists and activists, IREX helped launch the Bloggers Guide, the first of its kind in the Arab world.

When Ashwaq Anbar first arrived for civil-society and leadership trainings—organized by IREX Europe and its partner Youth Leadership Development Foundation (YLDF)—in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, her fellow trainees were not sure what to make of her. Although her family comes from the conservative tribal area of Arhab, she was not wearing a veil across her face. Instead, she wore only a scarf covering her hair.

Women and girls of the impoverished Imbaba area of Cairo had been coming to the local NGO Nour El-Hayah reporting that they had been forcibly taken to a cave under a city bridge where they were kept for days to weeks at a time. With their children sometimes in tow, they endured threats, physical abuse, drugging, and gang rape in a vicious scheme of noncommercial sexual exploitation.

Shabnam Almammadova will never forget the day she was watching television at home in Azerbaijan and saw a journalist ask an orphan about his greatest dream. The boy’s eyes welled with tears as he answered that he wanted an older brother—but knew it was impossible. Touched, Almammadova resolved “to make the impossible possible for kids like him.”